About Mike Treder Expertise My specialty is the societal and environmental implications of advanced nanotechnology. I can help people to better understand the implications of molecular manufacturing -- building products "from the bottom up," and to focus on the real risks and benefits of the technology.
Experience I am a professional writer, speaker, and activist with a background in technology and communications company management. In 2002, I co-founded the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology (CRN), a non-profit think tank. CRN promotes public awareness and education, and the crafting of effective policy to maximize benefits and reduce dangers. I am the executive director of CRN.
Organizations - Research Fellow, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
- Advisory Board, Global Risks Council
- Consultant, Future Technologies Advisory Group
- Editorial Advisory Board, Nanotech Briefs
- Consultant, AC/UNU Millennium Project
Publications The Futurist (magazine)
The Scientific Conquest of Death (book chapter)
Future Brief (online journal)
Expert: Mike Treder Date: 6/8/2005 Subject: autoreplicating nanotech
Question Hi,
I just finished reading Michael Crichton's novel "Prey" and found it quite interesting. As usual, Crichton gives a good thrill. How much is true? Will there ever be a nano Von Neumann machine? Would nanotech help our species in heavy manufacturing like building houses, cars, spacecraft, computers in the future?
Thanks,
Thierry
Answer - How much is true?
Fortunately, not much. Many parts are flatly impossible, and many others are stretched beyond plausibility. However entertaining it might be, the book does not provide a realistic portrayal of nanotechnology.
Serious research has shown that a "nano Von Neumann machine" would be extremely difficult to design and build, and its replication would be inefficient. However, it does not appear to be ruled out by the laws of physics, so we can't ignore the possibility that someday, someone might attempt it. In the meantime, though, nanotechnology raises other far more serious and imminent concerns.
- Would nanotech help our species in heavy manufacturing like building houses, cars, spacecraft, computers in the future?
Yes, this is quite possible, and "molecular manufacturing" (as it is called) may be developed sooner than most people expect. Nanotechnology and molecular manufacturing offer no less than the potential to transform the world and impact virtually every area of society. By manipulating molecules under direct computer control, we will have the ability to build anything we can design. But with this promise also come unprecedented risks: environmental and health dangers, more powerful weapons, global and economic upheaval.
It is imperative that we understand both the benefits and the risks, and especially that we determine how soon we must be prepared to maximize the former and avoid the latter. CRN has outlined a series of "Thirty Essential Nanotechnology Studies" that may begin to answer these questions. See http://crnano.org/studies.htm
